Leonard Susskind: My friend Richard Feynman

www.ted.com What's it like to be pals with a genius? Onstage at TEDxCaltech, physicist Leonard Susskind spins a few stories about his friendship with the legendary Richard Feynman, discussing his unconventional approach to problems both serious and ... less so.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.

[@baergrills9980]

I’d highly recommend his autobiography “Surely you’re joking, mr Feynman!” to anybody who enjoys his personality. The writing style itself is oozing with charisma, and the anecdotes he tells still manage to bring a smile to my face.

[@bozho123]

its not autobiography he didn't write it

[@phealy02]

I much preferred 'What Do You Care What Other People Think?' - less anecdotal & more intimate.

[@maulcs]

@@bozho123 Technically correct, but it's based directly off tapes of him speaking.

[@BlaziNTrades]

I'm grateful to have existed during this time. People like Susskind, Feynman, available to me for free online. Thousands of hours of free education online, and no tuition. You can' t get a job after your KZbin degree, but hey, most people can't get a job with a "real" degree either. It makes me genuinely happy (and sad) to hear Leonard talking about his dear friend and remembering him for who he was. We should all be so lucky to have a friend out live us like this.

[@ghc9425]

you can actually hear a tone of feynman in his tone. And laughing. Its funny

[@NavjotSingh-dy4iu]

Yeah, quite true Noticed many times even in his lectures. I think this must be the thing common with him and feynman

[@alperenalperen2458]

That's exactly what I was thinking :D

[@lewiscraw8294]

This came up right after a binge on Feynman. Yeah, Coincidence or not it feels true

[@johngrey1074]

Because he’s a NYC Jew.

[@alcyonae]

They're both Jewish from New York.

[@Aruoski]

One of the greatest physicist of our time talking about one of the greatest physicist of all time.

[@ismailismail3673]

Physicists!!!

[@walterbishop3668]

TED doesn't have enough time for Susskind?!!!

[@douglasauruss]

Why in the world they would only give Susskind 15 minutes is beyond me.

[@vikranttyagiRN]

Apparently everything is a business. I wish they had more time for this talk

[@masteroogway5932]

walter bishop They need to get the baloney out of their sandwiches

[@arbel6957]

I don't know how was the arrangements for this. I hope it went something like: TED people: "Would you do a TED talk on this date?" Susskind: "OK, fine, but sign me up for 15 minutes, I very busy that day"

[@laurentiumanolescu]

Because some feminist follows him

[@GeetarAdam]

Knowing that people like Feynman and Susskind exist in our world makes helps restore my hope for our future.

[@ifrazali3052]

Feynman is dead

[@guillermoperalta6659]

Ho yea?!, Meet Trump

[@GeetarAdam]

Ifraz Ali Ehhh...yeah, I know. Read his biography...which was (obviously) appended by his demise. My statement was not meant to be temporally parsed. It was a commentary on the KIND of people who I admired. 7 years on, however, I do have a different paradigm...and am not so enamored with their ilk.

[@GeetarAdam]

@The Great Bodhisattva Hachiman Lol. I mean, I'm not a bacterium. To put it into perspective, my respondee responded to my comment after six years, so we're clearly playing the long game here. ;P

[@RainnFTWj]

@@GeetarAdam "7 years on, however, I do have a different paradigm...and am not so enamored with their ilk." Why is that?

[@yatiify]

Fascinating, but a bit too short. Professor Susskind should do a longer video on Feynman :)

[@pixelpusher3589]

No vid like a true Feynman vid......check out some of his lectures.........absolute gold 👍😜

[@stevesatterwhite5141]

yatiify ',

[@zes7215]

wrg

[@SuperOlivegrove]

He should

[@SuperOlivegrove]

Really enjoyed this without baloney

[@TheZooman22]

Feynman had a way of making people believe they could "do it" . He inspired me to take an interest in physics & mathematics , and eventually pursue a degree in electrical engineering.

[@cynthiazhou5491]

me too!!! i took great interest in physics and mathematics after i saw a documentary of Feynman. his passion and love for physics really touched me, or it's like kinda passed to me. i'm still in senior hight but i 've already decided to take electrical engineering as my major in the college.

[@nahfid2003]

@@cynthiazhou5491 updates?

[@TheZooman22]

@David Because I can actually design and build things that can enhance and improve people's lives.

[@VigneshBalasundaram]

Name of documentary ?

[@spacegirl8130]

@@cynthiazhou5491 name

[@rtylerlucas]

"His great joy and pleasure in showing people that he could think more simply than they could." 😊

[@mike28110]

The intro was cut out but it included Susskind talking about being a great grandfather and jokingly saying "as everybody knows great grandparents get to do any damn thing they please, including following my own grandfather's advice which was, whenever you give a talk to a thousand people about Richard Feynman sustain yourself (then he takes a huge gulp of alcohol from his flask and the crowd claps).. then he says "this is an extremely slick operation and i'm not a slick man."

[@RakimMiddya]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqHNqKKqntWmbac If anyone is curious about the comment then this is the video for you

[@mikeotten6797]

Thank you 'test' and 'Rakim'. I actually saw the whole talk first, and was a little disheartened to come across this one with the the corporate/political censoring influence. So sad!

[@richardhines8622]

This is the first TED that didn't make me cringe , loved it !

[@lookingforjapanesegf]

richard Hines chek out the ted lalk with mike rowe from dirty jobs.

[@molchlurch]

That's what happens when old white men speak.

[@zes7215]

wrr

[@ishworshrestha3559]

Ll

[@onemanenclave]

It should be considered a crime to give a university professor 15 minutes.

[@pratyushabandyopadhyay6161]

Fled From Nowhere exactly

[@Mohabpiano]

let alone Prof. Susskind!

[@vee__7]

Susskind is a g. I could listen to him all day, every day.

[@pillettadoinswartsh4974]

I agree. Three would have sufficed.

[@letsprogress4124]

@@pillettadoinswartsh4974 You're the minority

[@millamulisha]

Leonard Susskind is such a genuine speaker, thinker, person etc. Ah, watching some of the free stuff he puts out from stanford is so wonderful... Just so real, him and feynman both... great ted talk, wish it were longer =[

[@joppadoni]

ive admired susskind, for years but this made me smile so much. nod heading. love it.

[@johnschweitzhofer8714]

"If you can not explain something simply you did not undestand it." Totally agrre with that sentence !

[@marciasmilack581]

I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, both the narrator and the subject though in such a different way, he makes that quite clear and yet accessible

[@pixelpusher3589]

Never met, didn't know, still miss!

[@GeetarAdam]

True. I think someone like Feynman illustrates how important the "style" of a persons thinking is. I.Q. tests can tell us certain things about a person's potential for abstract thought, perhaps, but it's certainly no measure of how intellectually fruitful a person is or will be.

[@liviu445]

Yeah, for real, his 'apparent' IQ is lower than mine and about 3% of the population, which is just not true, I'm not even 1/10 the genius he is.

[@Cephlapodninja]

@@liviu445 I find that saying he has another form of intelligence is disrespecting what he whole heartedly believed that everyone could do what he did if only they work hard and feynmens elementary style lectures really go to prove the idea further.

[@jessicarichards8531]

those stories warm my heart.

[@Willam_J]

Damn.... That was a fine tribute to one of my heroes.

[@nishparadox]

This always makes me smile and clam my mind...

[@MariaCristinaCabralGarcia]

made my day... could stay here listening to him all night long... also love Feynman...

[@nicholashylton6857]

Feynman was a really interesting dude.

[@anthonyskilton2679]

Thank you for this.

[@231wildy]

"If you can't explain simply, you don't understand." Epic!

[@sandipambulkar47]

That is originally what Einstein said

[@user-qc7vf7pb3c]

If you cant expalin it simply u dont understand it well enough... - Einstein Feynman technich : to understand it well enough explain it simply

[@gvardon]

Feynman seems like a fine man. His avoiding pretense and simplification is admirable.

[@alexmartos9100]

We need people like susskind around today.

[@kryptoknightmare9463]

I've re-read my copy of Classic Feynman about 3 times, and I've listened to the audio cd it came with, "Los Alamos From Below" at least 9 or 10 times. What a curious character he was!

[@jimw5299]

Love Susskind love Faynman. Love life, love phsyics.. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story xx

[@jimw5299]

Faynman is infectues... He's a free thinker just the way we all should be... But how hard would the govermemt find it to control us all if we was all like Feynman..

[@Damian-qu2fg]

Love Feynman. Susskind himself is one of a kind.

[@DaytonaStation]

Feynman was modest enough to respond to me in a letter in 1982 by hand, a nothing student asking about Caltech.

[@DomoKrch]

what did he say

[@paulc80]

@@DomoKrchHis response must’ve been an empty envelope but it was still a response.🙄

[@GlassTopRX7]

I can listen to a Feynman or Susskind lectures for hours on end and that not something I can say about many of the great minds.

[@RobertDeloyd]

I love hearing stories about Feynman :)

[@slybuster]

Flask beside his foot--he took a swig and toasted to Feynman. Lame that TED cut it out--are they going to blur the flask? lol

[@spencerm5913]

slybuster lol TED is no stranger to censorship. I think they forgot to put that little asterisk by their slogan. *Ideas worth spreading**

[@DaSurge26]

damn it screw the time limit I wanna hear more stories about Feynman

[@peter-radiantpipes2800]

One of my heroes and wish he was much more well known today. A movie about him would be great.

[@barryporteous4904]

There is: Infinity (1996)

[@derman077]

That part about the particle in motion having less time when it interacts with another particle blew my mind.

[@daveb4446]

I have no idea why, but this was so intellectually satisfying. I could listen to these stories all day

[@tyronekim3506]

Wow! A scientist with a brilliant insight into life. Thanks for sharing.

[@soleaguirre100]

Que amigo ! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🌷fabuloso homenaje! que simpática Charla! muy interesante Leonard!👍🏼

[@jc333jc]

Even if Feynman had been been my professor, I would still have been mediocre. But in the higher echelon of mediocre, merely by being taught by him. He was, and still is, a wonderful tutor who taught people to think in a different , get logical, way. He is sadly missed.

[@AnandRaiSays]

One of the best TED Talks in bologni of bad talks!

[@thomasullmann9515]

Proff Susskind is pretty great too. Good inspiration during my study break!

[@samala51]

What a beautiful human being Richard was.

[@Slashtap]

Really entertaining talk, could listen to this guy for hours

[@qbtc]

Feynman hypothesized that a good relationship with one's father was important to being a good physicist. He didn't have to go far to disprove that. Newton is arguably the greatest physicist and his father died before his birth.

[@maxwell8758]

It’s crucial to being a good person that one has a beneficial relationship with one’s parents.

[@jagk4459]

Thank you for sharing! =)

[@SafeTrucking]

Wonderful eulogy to a wonderful man.

[@jc333jc]

The best teacher I ever knew. I miss him still. He just happened to be a fantabulous thinker too.

[@wagsman9999]

Love this.

[@admiralhyperspace0015]

Great voice.

[@SassePhoto]

Simple and beautiful, so genuine - without all that make-up of other TED talks

[@sanderklaasen]

Sasse Save Sabe saviy?

[@JeanKM1]

I love the videos where authentically notable people are talking, or authentically notable people are being talked about, or, as is the case here, both.

[@shubhamsharma-wu9fv]

This video should have been atleast for an hour ..very important aspects of personality of Richard Feynman he has discussed... I can watch this for hours....

[@eamonia]

Lovely. Just wonderful...

[@Petteri82]

I can't sometimes decide between listening to Feynman and listening about Feynman (kudos to Dr. Susskind obviously) so I just keep coming back to both.

[@visamap]

Thank you all very much

[@JmO-ee1bi]

I’m rarely a fan of standing ovations but I’ll be goddamned if he didn’t deserve one.

[@valken666]

great talk

[@tanushkakhanduja1057]

He was cheerful! We’d wish havin’ such friends!

[@robn8036]

what a great closing line, true in all of life

[@valken666]

@jaylias you're right I did understand a lot about the world reading Feynman, and those were simple words, not complex jargon, he is great, and still lives in our minds and textbooks

[@uyoeno]

A lot of TED Talks are really good

[@johnchessant3012]

Would've loved to hear the stories he cut for time

[@notagain3732]

Time to rewatch

[@luisalbertocaceres5170]

Una gran exposicion y una reseña sobre Feynman amena e integral.

[@t3tsuyaguy1]

I think that last statement was beautiful. It was a simple solution to a complex set of problems. :)

[@mreuphrates]

How interestingly he talks about his friend ! ❤️‍🩹

[@mohammedasadi]

Two great scientists indeed, Susskind looks like Mike Ehrmantraut though :D

[@stevegovea1]

Great talk

[@Ayushkumar-cv2mi]

My physics teacher recommend me about Feynman and it was the best💛

[@hapkinger]

It seems like Richard Feynman was actually a very interesting person not only in science but in everyday life. Good to know there are some people interested in his works.

[@uzairhussain4856]

loved it.

[@rpm297]

This was more of a eulogy than a TEDTalk, but was Feynman was a fascinating man. And of course anything fascinating is worth talking is worth a TEDTalk.

[@sachindymala3714]

I saw one of his interview and made me feel smart..!

[@happysachan5906]

I got to know a lot about my one of fev physicists Feynman. Loved the video 🤩

[@zendoc49]

This is the best damn short speech honoring someone I ever heard from a scientist !

[@philosophy210creatio]

I told Freeman Dyson about this video, and he now wants to watch it. (He also knew Feynmann quite well.)

[@MrPoutsesMple]

+philosophy210creatio Dyson was Feynman's student and collaborator, so I'm sure he knew him very well indeed

[@physicspoint3356]

May God bless you sir

[@zetacrucis681]

what a delight!

[@VonKraut]

Awesome talk, I'm a huge Feynman fan, also Susskind has a bunch of free lecture series here on youtube anyone can watch and learn about quantum mechanics. Awesome!

[@thebearded4427]

It should be seen as the greatest tribute when your friend is asked to tell a story dedicated to educate in front of a room filled with intellectual people, and that friend decides to tell the story of the friendship you shared.

[@greedgreed4411]

Never thought I'd get to say this to anyone else, seems like it's always just said to me. But 'this is far too short!'

[@Memento_Mori_Music]

When I saw the name Richard Feynman it only took me 0.15 seconds to decide to click on this video.

[@schopenhauer6251]

That's a very good ted talk 💓

[@debayandas1128]

What was the simple equation satisfying the boundary assumptions of the helium atoms interacting with each other?

[@user-oq1qh2qp5o]

awesome!

[@dpie4859]

“He made me feel smart”.....well Mr Susskind: Maybe it’s because you are up there with Hawking, Einstein etc.

[@zoltangyorgy6079]

😂

[@johnchesterfield9726]

He’s definitely not, but he’s certainly smarter than he gives himself credit for.

[@johaner847]

They all deserve a huge amount of respect for being incredible competent in areas of work that requires such a high level of complex thinking... BUT, if we are going compare them like we do athletes or musicians. As pound-for-pound scientists; IN COMPARISON Susskind and Hawking wasn't really on the same level as Richard Feynman, but at least they played the same sport. What A.Einstein was able to accomplish is so far up that chart that it does not make sense to put his name in this context.

[@mrtpsoroush]

@@johnchesterfield9726 He ate Hawking and chewed him out, Hawking shouldn't ever be put in the same category as any of the physics greats

[@deathnote4171]

@@mrtpsoroush why?

[@linajamil4086]

AMAZING

[@foketesz]

greatness

[@georgdohner1710]

So sad most people just try to honor him instead of honor what he wanted. I may not be even close to him but the simple thing of keeping things simple is what i stand for and every time I can't explain something to somebody who knows nothing about what I am talking about shows me I don't really know what I am talking about. And that is a very simple thing everyone should keep in mind. Important about this for me is I start to think about was I was talking again and again until I can explain it so it is understood. Right now I feel great since that sounds like something he could have said.

[@dxdt9809]

I actually think Dennett is one of the few philosophers of conciousness that Feynman actually would get along pretty decent with, along with some of the other more naturalistic philosophers of mind such as the Churchlands and Ramachandran. Pitting Feynman against David Chalmers or some of the other philosophers that more or less seem to want to over mystify conciousness would have been fun though. :)

[@MrTerryKay]

I have the book 'Surely you're kidding Mr. Feynman'. Fascinating guy!

[@rodschmidt8952]

'joking'

[@JohnFHendry]

Excluding time dilation and the 2 harmonic commas responsible for gravity to keep it simple, and saying the atom's time scale is 24 hours we can (and should) see an oscillation cycle of 4 equal time phases on a 12 hour clock face where a 6 hour wait state exists at middle C or 12:00, and another at F# or 6:00. In other words as the hour hand moves it stops at the top (12:00) and bottom (6:00) for 6 hours each, and takes 6 hours to go up and back down each "side" showing 2 phases of movement.>

[@ramachandran8666]

It is people like Einstein, Feynman, Susskind, and many others who tirelessly and fearlessly seek to explain the truth about the world we live in are what makes this world a better place for all of us

[@valken666]

it was not coincidence that Feynman was an actor, acting is connected to being a good communicator and communication is key to thought

[@joejee01]

Very nice overview of Feynman . He was the greatest of all time .

[@jc333jc]

Wow John F!. You're obviously fairly/very smart - I wouldn't know as I only have the most basic understanding of things. I just enjoyed the story of a a very smart guy talking about another smart guy. It was fascinating to me to get a smearing of understanding to how these clever guys think. Can I be so crass as to ask why you posted this detailed post and can you explain it a little more simply? Thanks.

[@danglybit1]

wonderful ..two great human beans 🙂

[@charlesbromberick4247]

Feynman was certainly one of a kind.